EDWARDSVILLE – Jaydon Cole intercepted a pass on the third play from scrimmage and took it back 34 yards for a touchdown to start off Edwardsville on the right foot, and from there, the Tigers had little trouble in taking a 46-10 win over O’Fallon in the Southwestern Conference opener Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers are now 3-1 on the season overall, and the interception return by Cole for the touchdown was a result of his hard work throughout the off-season and in practice.
“You know, that young man has really done a good job in the off-season,” said Edwardsville head coach Kelsey Pickering following the game. “He’s had a good year so far for us, and just seeing him reward himself with a great play, he made a fantastic read, he jumped in. It was awesome. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
The play Cole made to put the Tigers ahead early was a big play that got Edwardsville off to a great start, and from there, the momentum just kept growing.
“Yeah, and you know? We can start fast, and it helps a lot of things,” Pickering said. “It makes it easier in all phases. So, yeah, it would be nice if we can continue doing that every week; I’m pretty sure that’s not realistic. But anytime we can get turnovers, and capitalize with points, it’s such a fast swing. We talk about creating turnovers, we talk about making sure we take care of the ball. I think that we won the turnover battle, two to one, maybe. So, again, that’s always a big swing for us. Getting turnovers is awesome.”
The Tigers continued to keep hitting full steam ahead on offense, and Pickering is very pleased by what he’s seeing now from the offense starting to click together.
“What I know is, I think we talked last week about it clicking a little bit,” Pickering said. “Guys are seeing the speed of the game. I think guys are seeing what they’re coached to do, and they’re executing it. So when you add those things up, where the game’s slowing down a little bit for them, it’s making more sense in what they see. The big catch down here (by Javion Smith) for a lot of yards, that’s just a great effort and a great ball by Yale (Weaver). Then, we ran to ball well all night, and so, that offensive line, man, they did such a good job tonight.”
When the game slows down enough for the Tigers’ offense, it makes things that much better.
‘Yeah, 100 percent,” Pickering said. “ When your offense is built on what you see, you can read that faster, and when you can see things fast, the game allows down, and it makes it a little bit easier, and more successful.”
The Edwardsville defense also played very well, creating the two turnovers, and generally wreaking havoc on the opponent’s offense.
“We’ve got 10 seniors,” Pickering said, “and you can tell how much they want it. You can tell they want to get to the football, they don’t want to make errors, and just did a good job in all three phases of the game tonight, I mean, my goodness, you probably get tired of something you put in the paper every week. But that’s who we are. And as soon as we stop valuing being a three-phase team, that’s when we’re going to find out we’re not having the success we’re having.”
The Panthers are a young team this year, and have taken their lumps so far in a now 0-4 season, but first-year head coach Joe Speaks knows that his team is heading in the right direction.
“Well, anytime we lose, we don’t feel too good about it,” Speaks said. “You know, we’ve got some young kids, we’ve got a lot of young kids playing their first year, really starting varsity football. And they just keep improving.”
The Tigers got started off on the right foot on the third play from scrimmage when Cole intercepted a Maddox English pass and raced back 34 yards to give Edwardsville a 7-0 lead after 1:53. Later in the quarter, it took two plays for Weaver to hit Devyon Hill-Lomas from 58 yards to double the lead to 14-0. On the next possession, Weaver and Hill-Lomax struck again, connecting from 57 yards to give the Tigers a 20-0 lead after the conversion was missed.
In the second quarter, Smith went up the middle for six yards and another touchdown, upping the Edwardsville lead to 26-0 after a two-point pass was intercepted. Hill-Lomas scored again, going in from 51 yards to make it 33-0, but the Panthers kept coming, and on the last play of the first half, got a 46-yard field goal from Brogran Hartmann to make the score 33-3 for the Tigers at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Tigers climaxed a long drive with Weaver running in from 10 yards out to make the score 40-3, and the final Edwardsville touchdown came early in the fourth quarter when Weaver threw nine yards to Gavin Potthast to make it 46-3, triggering the running clock rule for the remainder of the game.
O’Fallon got a touchdown on its final possession, as Luke Friedenberg went in from one yard out to make the final score 46-10 for the Tigers.
O’Fallon is now 0-4, and hosts East St. Louis next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Tigers are 3-1, and face Belleville West at home next Friday night at 7 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
